The present invention relates to processes for destroying bitumen or pitch by combustion. It more particularly, but non-limitatively, applies to the combustion of bitumen, which has been used in the storage by coating of radioactive waste resulting from the operation of nuclear power stations.
In the industry, there are cases when it is necessary to destroy relatively large bitumen quantities and the first idea is to destroy them by combustion in air or a more or less oxygen-enriched atmosphere. However, it is well known in the art that bitumens, which are essentially constituted by hydrocarbons, only burn with considerable difficulty.